


L'Amour Fleurit

by ShyWhovian



Series: Sapphic Sutcliff Week 2k19 [1]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: F/F, Flower Language, Flowers, Grelle is a babey, Sapphic Sutcliff Week 2k19, he/him pronouns for Grelle at first bc nina doesn't know better, it hurts, like so gay guys, nina is very gay, will change eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 01:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20219374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyWhovian/pseuds/ShyWhovian
Summary: Sapphic Sutcliff Week:Monday: Hair/FlowersAs Nina prepares her acceptance bouquet for her (not so) mysterious admirer, she reflects upon how it all arrived to this. A story of falling in love told through the language of flowers; something everyone (in Grelle Sutcliff's mind at least) should be familiar with. Pity no one told Miss Hopkins this.





	L'Amour Fleurit

Night was already creeping through her window as Nina continued to arrange a bouquet of flowers carefully, studying the book beside her almost religiously, making certain that she had in fact bought the right ones. Ambrosia for reciprocated love, Forsythia for anticipation, Jonquil for returned affection, along with solid coloured carnations to say yes and a single white camellia to inform their mystery lover that they were rather adorable.All in all a rather positive if very yellow bouquet, nothing like the mostly red one that had prompted it. She sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose as she tied the whole thing off in a ribbon and left it in the vase that had taken up a permanent residence in her home. Hopefully her red-haired admirer would receive the message.

Retreating to her room, the tailor thought back on how this whole affair had started in the first place, how someone she wouldn’t normally have looked twice at had become so infernally important to her.

It had all started about three years ago now, in June of that year if she was remembering correctly (and seeing how much of a head for detail she had, she was most certainly right).

\---

“Madam Red, how wonderful it is to see you again!” The dressmaker called out enthusiastically, brown eyes flashing appreciatively over the red haired figure for a brief moment. It would never happen, she knew but one could hardly fault a woman for dreaming. The former baroness was a sight to behold, and an incredibly skilled surgeon to boot. Any sane person would fall for her. Behind the lovely vision of red trailed a black cloud of dreary dullness. A young man, effeminate certainly but still horrifically male, dressed in the most drab sort of butler’s garb with enormous round wired spectacles placed upon his nose darkening her doorstep. 

She let out a low snort of distinct unimpressedness. Why was it that all the pretty ones had to come with the most disappointing people? After all, to her trained eyes it was quite obvious that the two were engaging in...more carnal pleasures with one another, given how the mouse’s eyes trailed across his mistress with the same sort of longing that Nina’s own did. Well, even despite his appearance, Nina had to credit him with good taste in women. Though in her opinion, even a blind man would be able to appreciate Angelina Dalles’ beauty, so that wasn’t saying much.

The vibrant red-clothed woman breezed in happily; chatting non-stop about the sort of dress she required, bringing Nina a much appreciated challenge for once, only to completely confound the tailor by requiring that her butler be the one to model the dress for her. Her butler?! A man? She was to be outfitting a man with a dress? Her brows raised slightly though she said nothing, merely ushering the drab little moth forward with a wave of her hand. He followed, eager as a puppy, causing Nina to sneer internally. Even worse than being a man, he was the simpering sort, always eager to please. So...wet. No matter, she would not let it be said that Nina Hopkins backed down from a challenge. She’d dressed far worse than this before in her time and was under no illusion that she wouldn’t do so again. After all, they couldn’t all be Angelina Dalles or Frances Midford. Sometimes she had to accept the men that came with them.

Whisking him off to her workshop behind a curtain, she stood him up, instructing firmly that he’d best not move lest she cut off certain vital parts before she turned to busy herself preparing the fabric. Though she didn’t notice, the butler’s face flushed a bright pink, eyes widening slightly at the brunette’s words, as though he were completely enthralled and enamoured by the idea of being so brutally maimed by the shorter woman. By the time she’d returned her attention to him the look had vanished, replaced by a nervous timidity that did nothing to endear him to her at all. Meek little thing.

For the next few hours she worked tirelessly, not paying heed to her mannequin. After all, if she didn’t acknowledge him at all then he may as well just be a dummy from a window rather than a living breathing person. He was murmuring under his breath as she worked and she had half a mind to tell him to shut his noisy mouth before she realised that his words were describing the type of stitches she was doing as she sewed him into the dress. Nina blinked in confusion behind her glasses, not often was it that a man knew anything at all about sewing. Certainly not about the type of things that she did and especially not in such a mystified voice.

That was...odd. Nina wasn’t certain how she felt about that. So she said nothing, simply continuing with her job until it was done. The dress was rough and entirely ridiculous looking on the man but she felt certain that on someone as pretty as Angelina, and once it was fitted properly to the woman’s measurements, it would look quite beautiful. (Though she was unwilling to admit it even to herself, the butler did actually look quite pretty, even in this unfinished dress.)

So she carted him out, allowed him to parade up and down in front of his mistress and definitely did not pay any heed to how natural it felt to see this man wearing such clothing, or to the fact that he seemed delighted to do so. 

The madam appeased; and assured that a proper version would be made post-haste, the butler - mistress duet departed her shop. Nina let out a sigh, sad to see the vision of beauty having to leave so soon. She felt rather like she’d spent no time at all with the red-haired woman. 

Once more however, her distraction caused her to miss the look of delight and happiness the butler had sent her way both after having finished the dress and after having taken it off of him again.

After that, her day had been much the same as it always was, more orders came in, clients came to pick up finished products and all too soon, the day was over and she was able to retreat home with her mind full to the brim with new ideas for a new line, for ways to improve certain designs she’d been asked to do. There was always room for improvement after all, especially when one made clothes for the type of people she did. Everything had to be absolutely perfect.  
This transcended to her homelife too, everything was perfectly in place because she had little time to search for tools should an idea appear to her suddenly. This was why she knew something was off the moment she stepped inside her home.

Like a sixth sense was guiding her, she made her way to the small kitchen and stopped dead, glasses slipping down her nose in concerned shock. The window was opened slightly, though she was certain she’d closed it that morning, and there, on the table lay the smallest bouquet she’d ever seen in her life, tied together with a red ribbon that clashed almost horribly with the flowers it contained. Camellia’s in varying colours, what she believed was heather and a single orange rose, open and beautiful.

Nina stared for a moment before going over to them and lifting them curiously. No note. What an odd thing to leave for her. To break into her house for even.

Shaking her head she cradled them to her chest for a moment before seeking out a bowl or vase to put them in. Someone had obviously gone to great lengths to get them here, it would be a shame to allow them to wither and die even if she had little idea of who could’ve left them.

Outside her window, a pair of unnaturally two-toned green eyes seemed to glow for a second as a concealed figure watched the gorgeous figure wander off into her home. But had anyone thought to look up at that point, they would've seen nothing more than the night sky, dotted with a million stars like freckles of gold across dark blue.

**Author's Note:**

> Meanings of flowers:
> 
> Beginning bouquet:  
Ambrosia - Your love is reciprocated  
White Camellia - You're adorable  
Carnation (Solid colour) - Yes  
Forsythia - Anticipation  
Jonquil - Affection returned
> 
> End bouquet:  
Orange Rose - Fascination  
Lavender Heather - Admiration  
Camellia (general) - Admiration


End file.
